Could some one measure the gap between the makerslides on the X axis. I am thinking of sandwiching a piece of steel flat bar between then and make it tall enough to just clear the top of the carrage and drop down and just clear the bottom on the carraage.
Thank you
Dave
I’m seeing 0.163" in the CAD model.
Well I’ve been playing with my CAD program. Using the info that Tony provided and download a CAD drawing of makerslide. I modeled a steel spline that gets sandwiched between the makerslide of the X axis.
In order to use standard plate size I had to increase the gap to 5 mm. This means that the spacer washers will need to be made thinner by .425mm
In order for the plate to become one with the makerslides there are 12 6mm reamed holes that start 10mm from the end of the MS and are spaced 196mm apart along the length of the MS and 20mm apart in the vert.
There are also 6 5mm holes at the same spacing along the length of the MS centered on the MS. These are for 6 5mm bolts and nuts to hold the whole assembly together.
The plate is just tall enough to leave 2 mm top and bottom clearance between the plate and the carrage.
Attached is a PDF of the assembly.
Dave
MS assem.pdf (106.0 KB)
what is this intended for?
It would increase the gantries stiffness so you could use a heavier spindle or move faster with less twist of the gantry due to side loading.
Here is a second PDF with a carrage installed.
Dave
x-carve_gantry.asm.1.7.pdf (1.7 MB)
ok i got ya. the plate looked really tall but the assembled view makes sense. i think id like to try something like this. im constantly knocking mine out of square
The one down side is that they don’t make 4.15 thick steel plate that I know of so I went to 5mm. This of course means you have to adjust the gap and the V wheels. You also have to adjust the belt location and the smooth idlers to clear the plate.
Dave
Would you get closer with (2) 14 ga sheet metal pieces, or even a .1875 thick plate?
.1875 seems to fit perfectly. V-wheels are still perfectly seated without having to futz with and of the other hardware. I am using 3 pieces of 1/16" aluminum as a test. But my gap (again with the v-wheels perfectly seated) was 11/64" or .172" as measured with calipers.
It would be really nice if there was a single piece of extrusion that could replace the two pieces. I would buy it if Inventables offered it.
There would need to be a demand to justify the tooling.
I can’t see why there wouldn’t be a demand for this mod. I am having to deal with flexing with my 1000 mm x-carve when trying to mill aluminum. This may be just what I need! I would love to be able to use some 1/4 inch bits to hog out some larger projects and then switch to a smaller detail bit to make it pretty.
At present we are dealing with a pair of beams that are less than an inch wide and less than 2 inches tall and are mostly air. Maker slide I believe was designed for use on 3D printers that have beam spans of less than 2 feet in most cases. Also 3D printers do not have any side loading or 3 to 5 pounds of weight in the middle of the span.
I understand why Inventables used maker slide in order to keep cost of the X-Carve at a price point that people can afford.
What Inventables did not foresee is folks pushing there machines to the max and the problems they are having with flex and beam sag.
I’m one of those people that will be pushing my machine hard. I will also be making parts that need to hold close tolerance, so I need to increase the rigidity of my machine.
One of the problems is that the gap between the 2 maker slides is not a even number that you can get metal in. The CAD drawings show the gap to be 4.15 mm This translates to .1633" . @StevenSchmelling suggestion .1875" plate is only .0094" less than 5 mm and would be easy to get here in the US.
FYI - I purchased 3/16" x 1" steel at the local hardware store, sandwiched it between the two maker slides and used 50mm “furniture hardware” bolts and nuts (flat heads). Works perfectly. The only downside is that I obstructed the passage through which the 2nd y axis stepper wire passes. That wire now runs around the back side of my machine to connect to the other y axis stepper.
I also used 1/4" aluminum plate to recreate the z-axis spindle carriage. I extended its height by 1" and added a third set of v-wheels. This allowed me to place the two universal spindle mount brackets farther apart. These two mods have virtually eliminated flex on Z and X. I can now run 1/4" flat end mill at .2" x 40"/min with no chatter and perfectly smooth cuts. I milled a circular pocket in poplar and the bottom was like glass. This would have been disastrous before the mods. I am using a 600watt spindle driven at only 48volts which yeilds only 6600 rpms (it is a 110 vdc spindle but my new power supply has not yet arrived from China).
Today, I am adding a single mid-beam support to each y-axis slide and I believe I will be good to go. I will try to post pictures if anyone is interested.
It seems to be working nicely. Here are pics of the mods: 3/16" steel sandwiched, y-axis supports, thicker, longer spindle mount with three wheels.
Spindle Mount: http://garritanoreunion.com/rexel/rigidity/IMAG0681.jpg
Sandwich: http://garritanoreunion.com/rexel/rigidity/IMAG0683.jpg
Y-Axis Support: http://garritanoreunion.com/rexel/rigidity/IMAG0684.jpg
could you reupload the files again. My computer does not recognize it on the pdf. It knows and reads the pdf, but there are no images
Do a right click and save as. Then try opening with adobe and see if that works. I just checked both files and had no troubles with them.
Dave
Good looking mods. will keep things much more ridged.
Dave
ok, that worked, Thanks!
THanks. Just ran it for three hours hogging out my wasteboard. Smooth as glass.
